The Jharkhand High Court ruled that a GST refund cannot be rejected without granting fifteen days’ time to reply and a personal hearing as required under Rule 92.

The Tribunal observed that revenue has compared the figures reflected in the ST-3 returns and figures reflected in Form 26AS statement and raised the demand without further examining the reasons for the difference in the two statements.

The High Court went a step further and questioned the detention of the ring at the airport, observing that when the item involved is a small piece of personal jewellery, such as a ring being worn or received as a gift, detention itself was completely misplaced.